life-writing Journal of Catalan IntelleCtual HIstory, Volume I, Issue 2, 2011 | Print ISSN 2014-1572 / online ISSN 2014-1564 DoI 10.2436/20.3001.02.13 | Pp. 179-195 http://revistes.iec.cat/index.php/JoCIH Joan Crexells (1896-1926). Details for a biography Melcior Font (1905-1959) Joan Crexells was one of the most remarkable Catalan intellectuals of the 1920s. But he died at the age of thirty, while still in full and multi-faceted activity. Ini- tially he envisaged a possibility of dedicating himself to philosophy in the insti- tutions and in the magazines regularly created by Eugeni d’Ors. But in 1920 he distanced himself from that world and moved to Berlin as a correspondent for La Publicidad. He was a brilliant journalist. Two years later, he won a competitive examination for civil servants specialising in economics held by the Barcelona City Council. He travelled to Germany and England to increase his knowledge in this field. During the Primo de Rivera dictatorship he was stripped of his office, but then Francesc Cambó found him a position as consultant of Foment del Treball Nacional. While never abandoning journalism altogether, he gradu- ally came to specialise in economic analysis. Nor did he abandon philosophy, and he was chosen by Joan Estelrich, the director of the Bernat Metge Founda- tion, to commence the translation of Plato’s Dialogues. He died in 1926, before the third volume could be published. Josep Pla, in the biographical profile of Homenots dedicated to him, said that Crexells, had he lived longer, would have come to be a very valuable high-level civil servant. In contrast, the poet Melcior Font, in the biography he wrote for the Revista de Catalunya, believed he was destined for prominence in academic life. Melcior Font was a few years younger than Crexells and an apprentice writer. He was presumably entrusted with the task because he had come to know Crexells in the editorial offices ofLa Publicidad in Spanish, which by then had become La Publicitat in Catalan. Carles Riba and Joan Estelrich provided him with some information. He had access to a number of letters. He also made use of the articles by Capdevila, Serra Hunter and Nicolau d’Olwer published in La Nova Revista. Crexells’ philosophical production, partially unpublished until then, was not collected into one volume until 1933. The Primers assaigs (Early Essays) –as the book was titled– were edited by Estelrich and Riba. Text edited by Sílvia Gómez Soler 179 Journal of Catalan Intellectual History. Volume I. Issue 2. 2011. Pp. 179-195 MELCIOR FONT Joan Crexells (Details for a biography)1 Melcior Font (1905-1959) I. Biography? Can we say that Joan Crexells (1896-1926) has a biography? It can be told in a few brief words: a life of thirty years, entirely dedicated to study at his own choosing. His contact with the world was never turbulent or adventurous. His will was totally faithful to his vocation. For his studies, oblivious of distances, he travelled around almost all of Europe. One sole love filled and adorned his life: the one that had created his home. Even in the difficult test of a long period spent abroad, an experience that holds out many temptations, no hint of adven- ture clouded his existence or distracted him from his task. He led a sober and modest life everywhere and at all times. His life story, then, is one that is free of slips, and particularly of face- tiousness. A life that was rich but spent in concentration. All the things that happened to him did so in a simple, normal fashion, they were never dramatic or life-changing. But we do not need to search for data, relive events or gather anecdotes when we have his work in our hands. And Joan Crexells, the richest and most enviable kind of man of our present-day Catalonia, leaves us a full, mature, exceptional body of work. Nevertheless, for future studies of the man, I am pleased to recall here a few details. II. a note At this point –with the physical presence of my friend still painfully alive in my mind’s eye– I would like to make a sketch of his appearance. Joan Crexells was a tall, thin, rangy man, with rather airy gestures, but with his head always held high. His features were normal, well-formed and so- mewhat forceful, with an almost invisible veil of doubt or profundity that Josep Pla saw in him. His pale face, with its rosy cheekbones, became more refined day by day. The thick lenses of his spectacles could not entirely dim the bright- ness of his eyes, which had a look partly of abstraction and partly of enthusiasm. His shiny black hair tumbled over his forehead. His gestures, firm and noble, 180 1 Published in the Revista de Catalunya, vol. XXXII (1927), pp. 158-177. Journal of Catalan Intellectual History. Volume I. Issue 2. 2011. Pp. 179-195 Joan Crexells (1896-1926). Details for a biography faithfully illustrated his words. The smile on his finely-profiled lips was someti- mes childlike, but more often seemed rather bitter. In evoking my friend, I can feel in my hands that subtle, tremulous sen- sation of fever that his effusive handshake conveyed in the last days... III. Infant Joan Crexells was born on the 15th of March, 1896, in a rather gloomy house at number 10 of the Rambla de les Flors in Barcelona. An inner courtyard cast a bluish light into the house, and it was to this that he opened his eyes. His family had little or no intellectual background, but their blood te- emed with determination and energy. Were these two decisive qualities in Joan Crexells’ life a paternal inheritance? It is easy to imagine. Take his father’s marvellous example of tenacity. Born into one of the poorest families of L’Hospitalet, he was a simple builder. One day when he was eighteen, walking across a field with his sister, he crossed a stream, stopped, and in a kind of moment of enlightenment exclaimed, “If I knew I had to die poor, I’d throw myself into this stream right now!” His words were not lost on the wind. Shortly afterwards he moved to Madrid, and it is not hard to imagine the hardships of the journey. Once there, he discovered that his neighbours made mirrors. Having no clear idea of what he wanted to do, the decision was simple: he would make mirrors, too. And so began the conquest of the chemical formula. He had to get hold of the first ingredients. But how was he to ask for them at the pharmacy when he did not know their names? Sniffing the pots, he learned to recognise the substances he needed. He began to perform tests, with the meagre savings he had slowly put together as a builder. And he succeeded in making mirrors ... but they reflected two faces. More tests, and finally the perfect mirror emerged. The dream had come true. The ambition he had expressed that day by the stream was begin- ning to see the light. And before long it was completely fulfilled. But young Joan Crexells, at the age of three, was sent to live in a far- mhouse owned by his parents in Sant Joan d’Espí –not due to illness, as some have believed, but simply out of maternal concern. He was never a noisy or boisterously playful child. On the contrary, he had a peaceful, smiling nature. He did his first studies in Sant Joan d’Espí. His first teacher, he said, taught him everything he needed to know at that stage. When he was nine, he left the school to return to Barcelona, and there were speeches and tears to bid farewell to the brilliant young master from the city. Was this not the first display of his gift of cordial amiability, in addition to his early scholarly prestige? 181 Journal of Catalan Intellectual History. Volume I. Issue 2. 2011. Pp. 179-195 MELCIOR FONT IV. student On returning to Barcelona, he continued his studies at the Col·legi Peninsular, close to the Mercè convent. He also studied the first two years of secondary education there. Officially, he did the other four years at the Institut. His schoolmates say that friendship and admiration flourished around him. He was never absorbed by the hubbub of the cloisters. He read or spoke seriously of literature with his colleagues. His highest admiration, then and always, was for Joan Maragall. He was serious, but extremely kind and friendly. His friends of the time remember his constant, restless playing with a silk cord that held his glasses. The cord later became a fine chain. Joan Crexells was no dilettante, even then. Quite the contrary. In each task he ap- plied that fire of enthusiasm, that imperative of will that he brought to bear on all things. His passion for reading was insuperable. It was at this time –at the age of sixteen– that his devotion for Shakespeare began, and it remained one his purest and most permanent. In the final year of secondary school he began to study English, whereupon –always tempted by difficulty!– he began read the author of King Lear in the original language, and then did the same with Goethe when learning Ger- man. At the same time he began training as a teacher of commerce. While a student and in his later years, he had a deep love for mathematics, of which he admired its transparency and praised its infallibility.